1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to adhesive roller assemblies of the type used for detritus removal.
2. Description of Related Art
There are many previously known adhesive rollers of the type used for detritus removal. These previously known adhesive rollers are generally of two different type constructions.
In the first type of construction, the adhesive roller comprises an elongated strip having a backing layer with two ends and two spaced-apart and parallel sides. An adhesive coating is provided along one side of the backing layer and the strip is then wound from one end to the other into a tubular and cylindrical roller with the adhesive coating facing outwardly.
In use, the adhesive roller is then moved along the surface to be cleaned and, in doing so, the outermost layer or sheet of the adhesive roll adhesively removes the detritus from the surface being cleaned. After extended use, the adhesive on the outermost sheet becomes spent. When this occurs, the outermost sheet is then removed from the roll thus exposing the next underlying sheet with fresh adhesive until the entire roll is depleted.
In order to protect the outermost sheet of the roll when the roll is not in use, a cover is removably disposed about the adhesive roll. This cover typically comprises a backing layer having an adhesive release coating on its inner surface. The release coating minimizes the adhesion between the cover and the adhesive roll to enable easy removal of the cover from the roll when use of the roller is desired, and the subsequent reattachment of the cover to the adhesive roll after use of the adhesive roller is done.
One disadvantage of this type of previously known adhesive roller, however, is that the manufacturing costs are relatively high. As such, adhesive rollers that are wound end-to-end to form the roll form the premium or more expensive adhesive rollers for detritus removal.
In the second type of adhesive rollers for detritus removal, the adhesive roller is also formed from an elongated strip having a backing layer with a coating of adhesive on an outer side. Unlike the first type of adhesive rollers, however, these rollers are spiral wound to form the adhesive roll. As before, once the adhesive becomes spent on the outermost layer of the adhesive roll, a single spiral winding, which forms the outermost layer or sheet of the adhesive roll, is removed thus exposing the next innermost layer of the spiral wound adhesive roll.
A primary advantage of the spiral wound adhesive roller is that such rollers may be very inexpensively manufactured. A disadvantage, however, of the spiral wound adhesive roller is that the cover disposed around the adhesive roll is also spiral wound. In practice, after the removal of the spiral wound cover when use of the adhesive roll is desired, the replacement of the spiral wound cover on the roll following completion of the use of the roller is difficult to achieve. In some cases, the user of the adhesive roll simply fails to reattach the cover to the roll after use due to the difficulty of replacing the cover. This, however, results in premature depletion of the adhesive coating on the outermost exposed layer of the roll.